On October 7th, the world was awakened to the stories of the atrocities committed by Hamas against 1,400 Israeli civilians. The level of brutality inflicted has not been seen in the Western world since the Second World War. This is not a matter of one side or another; it is what happened.
It seems that on many university campuses, there has been a conflation of politics and morality.
It should not make a difference if you believe in a two-state solution, a one-state solution, or even the end of the state of Israel. It should not matter if you are the descendants of slaves or refugees from Israel in 1948. If you are part of the human race, you should recognize the actions of Hamas as unacceptable under any circumstance.
I'm not sure why, after the rape, torture, mutilation, and incineration of men, women, the elderly, children, and entire families, this needs to be said.
Yet it does. It needs to be said because many educators and courses teach that when it comes to white colonialists (and we do not have to debate the fact that Israelis are not white), are evil, and therefore anything that is done to them is their own fault and justified. This is the dehumanization of a whole class of people. This is exactly what was done to my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, more than 100 people, by the Nazis. People wonder how educated Germans were able to do this. It was because they did not see Jews, Romani, and homosexuals as human.
Now these same things are being taught in your schools, and this does not seem to be an issue. You say it is free speech and academic freedom. It is what they said about eugenics as well. Now you are educating a whole generation of people to think that ethnic cleansing of certain groups, such as white colonialists and their descendants, is okay, a group that includes every white person in North and South America.
No one has asked university presidents, professors, or administrators to support Israel or even its right to exist. All we are looking for is for you to recognize that what happened on October 7th was barbaric terrorism and unacceptable under any circumstances. The fact that many of you did not condemn these acts and the fact that you let it be taught on your campuses that this is ok, should give you pause. You have hundreds of students publicly supporting the massacres.
You should to wonder how you got to a place where your students are supporting terrorists and you could not condemn atrocities.
Aaron, it’s like you’re in my head. I totally agree with you. We are living in very frightening times
Jemma Decristo, an assistant professor of American studies and an undergraduate faculty adviser at UC Davis, posted this on her X account, @jemmaisOKeh, that “zionist journalists who spread propaganda & misinformation ... have houses w adddresses, kids in school ... [T]hey can fear their bosses, but they should fear us more.” The post ends with a knife emoji, followed by a hatchet emoji and three drops of blood emojis.
She's teaching students to think critically.